Yesterday John (from across the street) and I fixed the outdoor spigot on the front/side of the house. It had great pressure once the cracked, leaking pipe was replaced. Inside the house the pressure had been gradually dwindling. I’ve been blaming the problem on the man at the end of the street. He has horses and cows. Without rain, he fills their water troughs with water from our shared well. You can tell when he’s filling because the pressure drops almost to zero.
When I got up this morning, I had no water — NO WATER at all inside the house. The outside spigot was still going gangbusters. I texted John and when he got home from school he hooked up a hose to drain the hot water heater. Then he went under the house (eewww) to look for the water pipes coming into the house. My brother (the one who drove by the house but didn’t stop because he didn’t recognize Brock’s truck parked in the back) suggested I open the spigots in all three bathtubs while John rapped on the water pipes to see if we couldn’t break loose the obstruction. Since bathtubs don’t have aerators, whatever was blocking the water flow could run out into the tub. Really splendid idea — that didn’t work.
So, I called my friend Roger who knows all about this stuff and held my phone to John’s ear while Roger told him what to look for and then what to do. It turned out that a valve under the hot water heater was all gummed up with little pieces of vegetable matter. It probably came up from the well. Since the house was generally uninhabited when I bought it, and now there is just me using water, the “stuff” had built up. Eventually (that means today) it completely blocked the flow of cold water.
John drove to Home Depot at 8:00 to get a new valve because we couldn’t get all the stuff out of the old one. He installed it with the help of all three dogs. Nola kept carrying his tools away and putting them in her crate. Then we let all the faucets spit out air and he re-started the hot water heater. He left at 9:45 to finish a school project. John saved me from standing out in the yard under the hose in the morning. I’m planning on a shower before I go to bed tonight. You can’t live without water, you know.
I think I should put John on retainer. He may not want to be there.
That’s hilarious! (After the fact, of course!) I love the part where Nola carries off the tools! Toby the pony does that when I’m fencing. So glad you have water now. I agree, water is NOT optional!
Hahahaha! Good girl, Nola! Sorry about the water – we’ve been having issues with our hot water for over a month now and finally messed around with the thermostat and it seems to have fixed the problem. Having a friend with handyman talents is a big plus!
John is definitely a keeper!
Glad the water is back on and working well. I love that Nola was carting off the tools. Such an entertaining baddog.
It is lucky my worker people love the dogs or they would have to stay in their crates for long periods of time — being as how there is so much to fix at this house.
God forbid it happens again, but if it does, you’re welcome to come here and use our shower. You’d probably better leave that baddog Nola at home, though. 🙂
Now if you could just train Nola to *bring* the tools to John, you might be able to rent her out as an apprentice and get a reduced bill. LOL!
Your baddogs are just a riot! I’d love to see some pics of Nola at work.
So glad you have everything in working order!